Apparatus has been provided for positioning poultry for deboning both in manual as well as mechanical operations. An upright conical support has been provided for positioning poultry for manual deboning operations, and such may be positioned upon a driven conveyer as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,419.
Conical supports such as illustrated in the patent have the disadvantage of requiring frequent replacement in that the plastic becomes cut due to repeated actions of the manually operated knife. All parts must be frequently cleaned by thorough washing, and greater frequencies of washing are required where the customary ultra high molecular weight polyethylene is used for the conical support or "horn", because such is relatively soft and the steel knives cut or gouge out the plastic leaving places which are difficult to clean requiring frequent replacement. The permanent cone members are expensive because they are machined rather than of moldable plastic. If the conical member is stainless steel, then such are expensive and introduce a wear factor in working with the manually operated knives.
Such manual operations may be facilitated wherein the conical elements are provided with removable plastic cutting shells constructed of molded high molecular weight polyethylene. Such plastic is less expensive and the shells are readily replaceable. Since the plastic is relatively hard, such may impart a sharpening action to the knives and requires less frequent replacement since there is less tendency for the shells to become gouged out. These conical elements and the shells carried thereon may be mounted on stationary supports or upon conveyer mounted supports as illustrated in the patent.
Accordingly, it is an important object of this invention to provide a molded plastic shell for protecting a permanent cone for use in deboning poultry constructed of high density polyethylene such as may be scratched but not gouged out like ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. Additionally, it is an important object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive plastic shell which may be useful upon conical supports customarily used for manually deboning poultry.
Another important object of this invention is the provision of a plastic shell which may be utilized for making a poultry deboning operation more sanitary and require less cleaning than is the case with the permanent fixture alone.